Martha E. H. Rustad is the author of more than three hundred nonfiction children's books, on topics ranging from baby ducks to black holes to ancient Babylon. She lives with her family in Brainerd, Minnesota.
STAR REVIEW! Space Vehicles and The Milky Way are two of the six
books in the Exploring Space series, all authored by Martha E. H.
Rustad and intended for the pre K to 2 grade levels. These are
wonderful books for a parent or other adult to read with a child.
As the books state, in part, in its "Note to Parents and Teachers"
(page 2) "The images support early readers in understanding the
text... Early readers may need assistance to read some of the
words..." The format of the books is a large illustration opposite
short text on the subject. Clearly, the young reader will need help
with the text which includes words such as: "asteroids",
"satellites", and "Soyuz". The books include a glossary (to help
adults explain terms to children), additional reading, and a
website to find out more. The website "FactHound" (page 23)
www.facthound.com is problematic as it requires you to search based
on the ISBN number of your book. Not the most obvious or easiest
way to search, especially when your staring point is a book
intended for preK. A search by ISBN number provides links to
several sites (NASA, ESA, etc.). Some sites are more young child
friendly than others. In "Space Vehicles" (pages 18 19) it states
"Russia's Soyuz spacecraft travels into space. The Soyuz takes
Russian and U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space
Station." The accompanying photograph shows a Soyuz rocket launch
of a Soyuz spacecraft. Obviously, it is not the author's fault that
Soyuz is commonly used for both the rocket and the spacecraft. A
better photograph might have been of the Soyuz craft in space (not
including the launch vehicle). The Milky Way (page 4): "Look at the
night sky. Can you see a thick band of light? This wavy white path
is called the Milky Way". Unfortunately, most people living in the
United States do not have this option. Light pollution has made it
all but impossible for most Americans to see the Milky Way. The
Milky Way takes on a much greater challenge: explaining to pre
schoolers something adults have difficulty comprehending. The
author states the size of the Milky Way in terms of how long it
takes light to travel "across it" or "from top to bottom" (page
14). Perhaps parents have an idea of the speed of light, but at
best it is probably just very, very fast. The glossary does not
include information about the speed of light.-- "Science Books &
Films"
They take a story-style approach to each subject: rather than
cramming pages with disconnected facts, there are a couple of
simple sentences on left-hand pages and one very large, well-chosen
photo on the facing page. . . .I think the best book in the series
is NASA; it does a good job of explaining how the U.S. explores
space, why we send robots to some places and humans to others, and
so on.-- "The Planetary Society blog"
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